Tuesday, 5 May 2009

Hooray I saw one.

Well, its my first day off today, and I had a lovely suprise when I opened the curtains, the first Swift! well two actually, flitting across the sky above the house, lovely..as the days roll on, more and more will arrive, and we`ll hear them as they scream over the house.

We decided to take a trip to Yarner wood on Dartmoor today, to see if we could spot some Pied Fly-catchers, they`re summer visitors and nest in the woods.

The woods were filled with bird song, Blackbirds, Thrush, Robins, Chiff chaff, and the little stream gurgled merrily under the leafy trees.

The pine tree had wonderful cones like candles..

and the Oaks had leaves the colour of lettuce..

along the path were huge wood ant nests, covered in busy ants rushing around with pine needles, and pieces of leaf carried above their heads..

and there were interesting tree sculptures..

as we walked along the path, edged with unfurling ferns, we suddenly heard the Cuckoo`s call echoing through the woods, it was so magical, its the first time I`ve heard it this year, so I was really glad.

Theres lots of nest boxes in the wood, and at this one we saw a female fly catcher fly out, she may have just been building a nest, we didnt see the male.

Wild strawberries and violets starred the banks,

and I noticed a nice little patch of Yellow Pimpernel

There had been some trees cut down, and this face had been carved out of the stump!

We followed the path which wound higher and higher up the hill, till we reached this old Copper mine, cloaked in ivy and starred with wild flowers,

Theres still signs of a mine shaft, it was originally 90 metres deep. The miners would walk two miles from their homes, then work a long day...life would have been very hard I think.

Not far from the mine was this lovely old carved chair.

We carried on, huffing and puffing as the path became steeper, there was some nice purple bugle beside the path

till we reached the top of the wood, where the Templer way runs

we followed it, with lovely views across the moor

till we came to this beautiful Beech hanger, where the Haytor tramway runs. This starts at Haytor and runs all the way down to Teignmouth. The granite was loaded onto the trucks and taken down to Teignmouth where it was shipped out.

Its amazing to see how much has survived, and a lovely reminder of the past

This nice old milestone shows that there is five miles to Teignmouth

Having enjoyed all the relics from the past, we walked back, I noticed this flower, which I`d never seen before, I had to look it up when I got home, its Common cow-wheat, a parasitic plant, its always nice to see something different.